Ship with 281 passengers runs aground near Alaska

The Empress of the North ran aground 50 miles from the coast more than four hours ago, and has already been moved, but as it was being tugged, the ship's hull was damaged and it is now taking on water, the spokeswoman said.

Nobody has been hurt, and the passengers are being evacuated onto other ships. The weather is fine, the spokeswoman said. - RIA Novasti

DPA reports - Despite strong winds, one-metre high waves and ice-cold water, all the passengers were evacuated by 8 am to a variety of vessels that rushed to the cruise ship's aid, said Blake Painter, whose trawler, The Evening Star was the first ship on the scene and took aboard 22 passengers.

'Everyone's off the cruise ship,' he told US television network CNN. 'I believe they've got it stabilized. Everybody is really fortunate that it only breached part of the ship. If it had gone down I wouldn't expect anyone to live more than a minute or two in this water.'